Total Newbie has questions about TX-P2675WH & HiDef

I just bought this thing yesterday, from Tweeter on a closeout ($550 from nearly $700), and after playing with it for a day, I've got some questions:

1) I have a Toshiba TiVo (SD) / DVD player combo-unit. I have Knology basic cable. If I want HiDef through cable, I gotta get a cable box, right? I am assuming this will be a relative nightmare with the TiVo and a cable box, yes? I am assuming I'll be paying for the box rent plus HiDef programming, right? If you have a similar setup, please tell me how it works.

2) I also have an Apex DVD player that I use a fair amount because it plays a wide range of burnt DVDs that I have, while the Toshiba won't. The only place I've been able to plug it up os on the side A/V inputs, and I'd rather connect it through the back ins. I can't seem to figure out how I'm supposed to use those composite inputs for simple stereo and video over RCA cables. The manual is no help. Advice?

3) When playing a widescreen-formatted DVD over the Toshiba, I cannot figure out how to have the image fill the screen. At present, I end up watching the DVD in letterbox with the left and right fill bars in place (about 60% useage of the screen), or I switch to 16:9 and get what appears to be stretched 4:3.

4) The bars (when watching 4:3 content) are annoyingly colored, and the color seems to change with different sources. Off-the-air 4:3 usually has black bars, but sometimes these bars are light gray - very distracting. Is there a firmware hack or remote-entry hack to get these bars to be black all the time?

I'm sure I'll have more questions, but this is certainly enough to start!

Thanks for reading, an feel free to email me at home if you think your post isn't forum-worthy.

whoisstevekimock <at> hotmail.com

Most cable companies use the Scientific Atlanta DVRs rather than TiVo units. Here in Houston you just hook them up and you are good to go. Codes for some universal remotes are not to be found, so that could be an issue.

Your TV has an ATSC tuner in it, so you should be able to attach an antenna for local DTV.... assuming you have some local DTV.

http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/products/2004/305/h305TXP3075-b.jpeg
Connect your s-video Apex to the s-video connection on the back of your TV and use the A/V Input 1 for the audio, just like it was a SVHS tape unit.
See page 19 in this file: http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/Manuals/305/305TXP3075.PDF

If your DVD is 2.35:1 AR (widescreen) then there will be black letterbox bars. Only 16:9 formatted DVDs will fill the screen and 4:3 DVDs will have pillarboxes.

1) You'll need a subscription to the digital tier, and a cable STB that's HD capable. Your TV has digital tuner that's only good for broadcast digital stations, it's not digital cable compatible. You can hook the SDTV output of your STB to your Tivo Aux input, and record a downconverted version of the current channel - even if its HDTV.

2) The COMPONENT inputs are used for digital video signals from 480p to 1080i. They can NOT be used for analog SDTV. Hopefully, at least ONE of your DVD players has Component output at 480p. You only have a single composite/SVideo input on the back, another on the side. You'll need to configure your DVD player for a 16:9 display, and to output 480p over component.

3) Your player must have a config option for widescreen TVs to be compatible with the anamorphic option... and you'll probably need to shift your TV's aspect from 'full' to 'wide' when viewing an anamorphic disc.

4) When a digital station sends a 4:3 image within a 16:9 frame, the sidebars will be black. If your TV receives a 4:3 image, it will do the pillarboxing using gray bars. Gray bars have less burn in risk. This may be configurable in your TV.